Release
by periwinkle13
Summary: Otw fic exchange for TophReincarnated. AliciaxDerrington


She was running

**Disclaimer: I don't own the clique. Seriously, if I did, Claire wouldn't exist.**

**This goes out to **TophReincarnated :D

Prompts:

**angst**

**squeak toy**

**jelly**

**airplane**

**keys**

**Enjoy.**

_She was running. Beads of weariness and fatigue dripped from her face and her breath grew heavy. She did not know where she was headed; yet she took even larger strides. Fear and trepidation hung around her like mist but she kept going. _

_I need to run somewhere; someplace, just anywhere but here. _

_Almost at once, an alluring fountain in the heart of luscious and heavenly greenery greeted her. It's scintillating crystal waters enticed her, drawing her to it. She could nearly taste its pleasurable freshness and feel its glistening, silvery touch. _

_You're my only source of redemption left. _

_She reached out to the fountain, but despite its allure, she felt as if a magnetic force was compelling her away from the delicious waters. She was just a finger away. _

_Let me, please! _

_In desperation, she gave a cry of anguish as she tried reaching for the fountain's waters. _

Alicia jolted with a start. Ruffling her tangled brown strands, she sat silent for a moment. Dawn had just broken and sunlight was streaming into her bedroom. The house was still. She listened, as if she expected to hear something in particular. Then she sighed, somewhat contentedly. _He's not here._

Her footsteps sounded as she entered the school hall. Whispers and stares saturated the atmosphere. She looked for her friends. Then with a pang, she remembered they had left her. Affliction and abasement once again distasted her tongue and her chest throbbed with grief and bitterness. But she knew that it was her own fault for her current circumstances.

_The fountain transformed into a pile of freshly cut firewood. She indulged in the scent of sweet coarse wood which hung in the air. As she leaned towards it, large and fiery burnt-orange flames suddenly erupted, engulfing her along with it. Her skin felt as though it was being scalded and shredded into pieces similar to how a maid ripped off old bed linens in just one strip. She screamed__. _

"Alicia! Wake up, stop screaming!" Alicia's concerned teacher shook her out of her sleep. Her classmates snickered as Alicia awoke bleary-eyed in cold sweat. Her collarbone and ears turned crimson red. As she heard sniggering, she realized she had just added her very own garnish to her already brewing concoction of gossip and discrimination.

The day she came to school with black rings under her usually bright and sparkly eyes which had turned as dark as night was when everything changed. Her friends were extremely worried when their beta, a previous bubbly socialite, turned away from them. She stood far away from everyone else, frosty and untouchable. The more they tried to reason with her, the more she distanced herself. In the end, they just stopped trying. They gave up being nice to her – she became the school's hottest subject of gossip.

_But I really can't tell them. I can't even trust myself. It has to be kept confidential, regardless of what it costs me. _

God answered Alicia's fervent prayers. All eyes were on her figure as she left the classroom meekly. Chatter arose and the atmosphere electrified. All wondered what the principal had requested to see her for. She heard all sorts of venomous words being directed at her but she did not care. She was out of that place and that was all that mattered.

_She was in a dark room. One champagne glass and one blue miniature glass were placed in front of her. The champagne glass gently knocked against the miniature glass. Unexpectedly, the miniature started filling up with individual crystal droplets, which fell from nowhere. They reminded her of teardrops. Then with a piercing sound of glass breaking, the blue miniature glass started to crumble, shattering into twinkling smithereens by itself. _

_And there, she was back in her house, her father holding a plate with jelly, beckoning her to come to him. A set of keys jingled at the sidelines, keys to her freedom she thought. _

Alicia could hear the rhythmic beeping sounds of the machines in the hospital room. From where she sat, she riveted her gaze to meet her father's badly bruised face, smeared with livid red cuts and blotches all over. She listened to his irregular heartbeat and his heavy breathing. _I'm sorry but your father is on the verge of death, Alicia. _The doctor's words replayed over and over in her mind. Yet she felt no despondency, only resentment. Her face turned to the colour of molten lava and her orbs of emerald green burned with hatred for him. She despised him.

She thought about how her father's body got run over by a speeding vehicle and was at near death, about the principal and her look of disbelief at Alicia's cold and composed state. _She knows nothing. I wish he was dead__. _

That night's event was so vivid; Chills still ran swiftly down her back, causing the nape of her neck to tingle whenever she thought of it.

Her heart was slamming against her ribs as the door creaked open that night. The velvet sky was clear. It seemed as though the stars, which told no untruths, were hiding, as they knew what lay ahead for Alicia. Lying underneath the covers, Alicia steeled herself not to panic. _It is just Daddy. Daddy. _Still,her lips quivered and her eyes were wild with fear as he edged closer to her bed, accidentally stepping on her favourite squeak toy. _He had to ruin everything._ She felt his coarse hand on her thigh, stroking it. She pretended to be fast asleep, hoping as she might, that he would leave. But he grew daring, touching her _there_. She resisted, attempting to scream but he pushed her down and threatened to beat her and disown her. She lay there quietly like a porcelain doll, fragile and cold, waiting for him to finish, willing herself not to cry.

She was once again back in the epicenter of the green splendor and grandeur. But she was crying no more. A tranquil, blithe presence overwhelmed her. She felt unprecedented. Free. She laughed jovially, the corners of her mouth flicked upwards, pointing to the clear blue sky dotted with magnolia white clouds drifting lazily in the breeze.

I've haven't been this happy for so long.

Much had changed since then. She was sad. She missed having a squeaky-clean-happy family, being the life and soul of the party. She was now an abused, non-existent freak. Someone pathetic whom people pitied, a position in which she never thought she'd ever be in before her father changed it all. _A nobody_.

The zephyr gently caressed her face, lingering the contours of her delicate, vulnerable features. As if sprinkled with fairy dust, she skipped light, petite steps as she ventured deeper into the enchanting garden. Butterflies danced along with her, pirouetting with pollen grains; flowers of red and yellow hues welcomed her with their childish giggles and flushes of redolence. She was happy.

She just wanted to end it all.

Then the meadow led her to a long, translucent ribbon of glistening silvery blue of a distant horizon which cascaded down the bend. She ran to it and peered at the still waters. Its serenity and lull marveled her immensely. "Come!" The rippling radiant green-blue waters seemed to be singing softly to her like a siren. And impelled, she climbed up the rocks, placed just above the waters, to get a little closer.

What would it be like to feel those glorious waters around me? Oh the magnificence!

She stood on the rock. All she could see beneath her was shimmering waters, so deep, that she could not see anything below the dark tint of blue. It was so mesmerizing, so beautiful. She thought of the fountain, the fire and the shattering objects. Their deep attractions, hot scarring flames and piercing loud sounds – so different, yet all the same. They scared her; she wanted it all to go away. And above, an airplane whooshed past, as if daring her to jump.

"Come!" The waters sung out to her once more, this time much stronger and louder than before, "And you'll never have to face all your troubles again."

I'm going. I need to liberate myself.

Her feet shifted an inch closer to the edge of the rock.

Am I sure? Do I really want to do this?

She clenched her fists into balls. She inched yet even closer. One more inch and she'd fall.

Yes!

No!

She was on the edge of a bridge, crossing a river, about to jump to her death. Instead, a pair of hands prevented her. A pair of shorts was visible from her view.

"Please Alicia. Don't do this. I love you."

"Derrick. My life is over. Everyone hates me. You don't love me."

"We can get through this together."

Alicia woke up to the beating sounds of her own heart. Tears sprang to her eyes. Her chest heaved deeply. She was within white pristine walls lying on a bed, the room smelling of stinging disinfectant. She thought for a moment, and then sighed. It was just a dream, Derrick did not love her.

_Or so she thought._

**Hope you liked it. **

**Reviews would be great. **


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